All posts by Mike

98.6F? That’s outside temp. I was likely running a bit hotter!

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

I was on my own Sunday; Kevin was off with his girlfriend, so I got to do my own thing. On Tuesday & Thursday mornings, that thing always includes a climb up Kings; on Sundays it seems to always be Old LaHonda. I’d thought about doing the Pescadero/Tunitas loop, but my bike needed a bit of work, I was a bit lazy, and there was this strange part of me that wanted to wait until it got pretty warm, hot even, before heading out. Why? Good question.

I took it easy up Old LaHonda and felt a lot better than last week, when I broke into such a heavy sweat… on a day that was a bit cooler! Even took a slight detour on the way up; I’ve always wondered what Orchard Hill was all about; now I know. I’d tell you but I’d have to kill you. Descending West Old LaHonda I was a bit disappointed that there were no snakes out; it’s been quite a while and I figured, at 88 degrees, there might finally be a snake or two. Where are they all hiding?

Interesting experience at the LaHonda duck pond; a turtle and Heron were both at the “wrong” end of the pond! Never seen a turtle near the east side, but there it was, sitting on a branch coming out of the water. None in the usual place, or at least none that I could see.

Last chance to rethink things and head out to Pescadero anyway. Nope. Instead I did something unexpected; I tried to drill the lower section of West Alpine (where it’s rolling/flat) and see if I could maintain something close to my PR (my Garmin interfaces with Strava to, usually depressingly, display my current pace vs my best recorded pace). I managed to keep it so close that I just kept on moving and was really surprised to see, at age 65, I got my best-time ever for that segment. I should say, my best Strava-era time, which goes back to 2008. I don’t want to think about how much faster I was, back in the day.

West Alpine was its usual nasty self, and while I wasn’t seeing the power readings I would have liked, the time didn’t seem too bad. In the end, best time in just over a year, so the broken ribs, now 4 weeks in the past, don’t seem an issue anymore.

Heat? Up on Skyline I saw it get as high as 99F, quite a bit warmer than down below. “Just” 86 down below. Overall a pretty nice, although short (43 miles) ride.

I don’t know what’s going on. Where are the photos, for starters?

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Weird past couple weeks. For both Tuesday & Thursday-morning’s ride, my video camera, a GoPro Hero9, has acted like it’s been recording, but there is no evidence on the video card that was. No files. You’d think after this happened Tuesday I would have tested it, tried something at home and see what was working and what wasn’t, but perhaps I was still reeling from my utter failure on Sunday and wasn’t of sound mind.

Tuesday’s ride was, fortunately, much better than Sunday’s. And surprisingly, Thursday’s ride was better yet. It didn’t feel that way at the start; Kevin and Colin had me on the ropes towards the end of the section through the park. I really didn’t think I’d see my usual comeback on the middle section. But, just like Tuesday’s ride, and so many before that, the usual happened again. I don’t know why. But once you get past the park and the grade reduces just a little bit, it feels like I have a chance to recover. But, why just me? By the time I got to the wide open section, I had to circle around a bit, waiting for Kevin and Colin to catch up. This is sometimes risky; it’s possible that I never get my speed (if you can call it that) back after waiting for them, while they’re still under full steam and In end up getting dropped. Dropped, after waiting for them. But that didn’t happen Thursday; I had good-enough legs I could do whatever I wanted (within limits) and distanced them again.

And then… they disappeared from view, with just half a mile, maybe less, to go. I slowed way down, kept waiting… but they never came into view. Finally turned around and found the reason. As seemed likely, Kevin was having a seizure. He recovered and had no further issues, but the rest of the ride it remained the case that I could still ride strongly, could still put Kevin and Colin behind me if I wished. Such a remarkable difference from Sunday!